Tilsit, Germany

TILSIT (Russian Sovetsk), East Prussia, Germany, today Russia. Jews settled in Tilsit at the beginning of the 19th century. The Jewish population was 13 in 1811; 265 in 1843; and 780 in 1895. A cemetery was in use in 1825 and a synagogue was dedicated in 1842. In the early 20th century, the Association of East Prussian Communities established an office to care for Jewish immigrants arriving from Eastern Europe. The realignment of national boundaries after WW1 placed Tilsit on the German-Lithuanian border. Lithuanian Jews joined the community in daily religious services. In 1928, the Jewish population was 797. The synagogue and the cemetery were desecrated several times in the early 1930s. In 1933, on the eve of the Nazi assumption passer, there were about 640 Jews living in Tilsit. In July 1933, a curfew was imposed on Jews during the evenings. The community prepared for emigration and a local branch of the German Zionist Organization was active. English and Hebrew language courses were organized and on the outskirts of the city a training farm for prospective emigrants to Palestine was established. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), the synagogue was destroyed and Jews were arrested. In May 1939, 298 Jews were still living in Tilsit. Most of those still there in 1941 were brought to Königsberg prior to the German attack on Russia and presumably later deported. In July 1944, there were still 31 Jews in Tilsit, probably protected by marriage to non-Jewish partners.